My friends tease me for blogging/discussing food basically non-stop, but I think about food preparation A LOT these days. I want to experience the food of this country, and so I wind up buying bags of vegetables, nuts, and fruit that I have no idea how to prepare, then learn–and then I have all sorts of Iron Chef war stories to tell. Remember my post on edamame?

Well, chestnuts are in season right now, and what is more delicious than chestnut-flavored everything? I got some chestnut gelato from the local gelato place; I’m sure grocery stores that actually carry Kit Kats have chestnut-flavored Kit Kats right now. Fall is in the air, and it was time for GAIJIN CHEF: CHESTNUT BATTLE.

I found a simple recipe for chestnut rice in my bilingual cookbook and a recipe for matcha-chestnut cake in my rice-cooker cookbook, so I decided I was going to cook all my chestnuts and go crazy with the cookery.

First, how do you cook a chestnut? There are several methods, all of which are PAINFUL.(more…)